The Miracle of Phoebe

Yesterday, the plane arrived and we had an overnight visit from Barb, one of our nurses who is currently still based in Nairobi and preparing for the Community Health Worker training school. She came with several people from SIM Australia who are involved in raising prayer and financial support for many of SIM's projects. They, along with a Dinka Christian leader, had just spent a week in a village along the Nile at another one of SIM Sudan's stations, introducing the community to a water purification system that will be implemented in October. It was great to have visitors here and we cooked up a storm for them and showed them the beginnings of the health and educational work here in D. One of the guys also made some adjustments to my solar system and put up a second light bulb in my tukul so it's a lot brighter now. Barb also brought my repaired satellite phone and the fact that you're reading this means that I've just been able to go on-line with it for the first time! Yahoo! Praise the Lord--I won't be in cognito for the next 3 weeks! I'm also available for text messages and phone calls, if you feel so inclined! Barb also brought our mail from Nairobi and I got 3 snail mail letters, which absolutely mean the world to me. There's just something about a hand-written letter...I've also had quite a few nice emails since I sent my prayer update a few days ago. So thank you to all who've taken the time to write and encourage me and tell me little stories about what's happening back home in Canada and the UK. This contact with home is so precious!

Anyway, back to Phoebe--the girl of the hour! She's one of the malnourished children that I told you about 2 weeks ago. This morning her older sister and brother-in-law made the journey here with her so we could see how she's doing. Wow--God has shown us another miracle! She walked in here strongly on her own 2 feet, whereas last time she was very weak and hanging limply on her brother-in-law's back. She had obviously gained a significant amount of weight in her face and arms; when I measured her arm circumference it had increased by almost 2 cm in less than 2 weeks!!! Now, I'm not very experienced in this area but I was shocked! The biggest increase I have seen so far in another child was 6 mm in just over a week; this was 18 mm in less than 2! I exclaimed to Phoebe how good this was in the M. language and she gave me the hugest grin ever. I'm telling you, a smile like that from a child so weak and lifeless just a couple weeks ago is worth it all! Phoebe's symptoms of chronic cough and diarrhea had cleared and her sister and brother-in-law had clearly worked very hard to feed her. Grace and I had the privilege once again of praying with them, giving God glory for the work He's done in Phoebe's life and asking Him to continue to heal her.

Thank you for praying for Phoebe and the other children. Last week we also paid a home visit to little 18-month-old Stephen, the very first severely malnourished child we met before we started to volunteer at the clinic in B. His mother is the most wonderful, friendly young lady ever and we tried desperately to communicate with her broken English and our broken Mabaan...and laughed a lot. Stephen has also gained some weight and is looking more like a normal boy, although his progress has been slower. If you've been keeping up with my blog you'll know that we've now followed up each of these 5 children at least once if not more, and that each of them is gaining weight and becoming healthier. God is good! Next month when Doctor Rob comes for a couple of weeks, we hope to have each of the children come for a thorough medical examination, and have the doctor's input into their care.